470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 1 



date on which I prepared my own colonies 

 for the winter. 



Mr. Russell bought in all nineteen hives. 

 In the middle of May I invested in nine. A 

 cursory examination indicated all to be in 

 fair condition. Mr. Russell was over head 

 and ears making changes and improvements 

 on a ranch he had just bought, so the bees 

 got scant attention until about the time I in- 

 vested in mine; but he fed a little at intervals. 

 The first serious examination we made to- 

 gether, and we discovered that eight of his 

 nineteen were either queenless or absolutely 

 extinct. On May 27 I overhauled my own, 

 and found No. 1 to be queenless, broodless, 

 and eggless. No. 3 was in fine order; and 

 since it was the same style of hive as No. 1 I 

 combined the two by putting the latter on 

 top with a sheet of newspaper between, a 

 small hole being punched in it. Every thing 

 seemed from outside indications to be all 

 right, so I left the combination alone until 

 July 2, on which date I was startled to find 

 that the hive must have been queenless for 

 some time, as there was neither brood nor 

 eggs anywhere. 



Getting back to stand No. 1, on this was 

 placed the brood-chamber from No. 7 after 

 the second swarm had issued, the date being 

 June 10. July 2 I saw lots of eggs; but on 

 the 23d of the same month I found a little 

 miserable queen-cell capped over, but no 

 eggs in worker-cells. So the first queen, one 

 of the season's raising, had been superseded. 

 August 14 I found lots of eggs and larvse. 

 This queen was ultimately replaced by an 

 Italian. 



The queen of No. 5 was clipped May 25. A 

 swarm issued June 20; but as I could not find 

 the queen I gathered it in and hived on the 

 old stand. The next day I saw the queen in 

 the new hive; and as she had all her wings I 

 deemed her a new one. A week later I found 

 plenty of eggs in the cells. August 5 my 

 note-book reports "Fine;" then on August 

 14 the entry reads, " Freshly opened queen- 

 cell; few eggs." Eleven days later I found 

 lots of eggs and larvse— clearly a case of su- 

 persedure. 



No. 6 was a hive I simply detested, as it 

 was a jumbo into which a swarm had been 

 hived without foundation, and, I fancy, with- 

 out even starters in some of the frames. The 

 result can be guessed at. I hate to describe 

 it; but it may readily be understood it was 

 impossible to pull it apart for investigation. 

 It lagged behind in the spring, even with a 

 little feeding; but by the middle of June it 

 was a whopper with bees; but instead of com- 

 ing up into the super, and working on the 

 founciation, they proceeded to erect all kinds 

 of creations on the top-bars of the brood- 

 chamber. In the end I took a super and 

 combs from another hive, placed on top of 

 this one for a few days, then when a new 

 queen arrived she was introduced into the 

 super on the old stand while the hulking 

 Jumbo was taken to stand No. 25. This was 

 July 13, and on the 25th I decided to get rid 

 of an eyesore; shook all the bees into a lower 

 story with some scraps of comb fastened into 



frames, and put an excluder between the 

 two divisions. August 5 I transferred the 

 old combs into a regular hive, and on this 

 occasion I saw the queen and commented 

 that she was both big and dark. On the 14th, 

 as I could see no eggs or larvae I examined 

 the ground in front and found the body of 

 the queen. 



No. 8 is a regular Langstroth hive. From 

 the start it did well, so I pushed it hard to 

 get lots of bees, and ultimately increase by 

 division. June 28 it had a couple of shallow 

 supers with eggs and brood in both. On that 

 date I divided, leaving the brood-chamber 

 on the old stand. Four days after, I over- 

 hauled the latter and was rather surprised to 

 find no eggs in worker-cells — more so to see 

 three recently opened queen-cells. July 6, 

 still finding no eggs, I gave a frame from 

 another hive. A month later, August 5, I 

 saw lots of sealed brood. I am certain the 

 old queen did not go with the supers when I 

 divided. 



July 1 a third swarm was hived on No. 12, 

 and five days later it seemed to be in good 

 order. On the 25th I found two empty queen- 

 cells, but could not see a queen. August 6, 

 as there was no trace of one, and the hive 

 was weak, I combined it with another, the 

 final result being satisfactory. 



Thirteen is usually considered to be an un- 

 lucky number, and it was so with me last 

 season, but no worse than many others. 

 The hive was started with four frames with 

 queen-cells on June 28. Examination a month 

 later showed it to be queenless, so it was 

 combined with another. 



So much for my own experiences. Now 

 for those of my friends. 



About August 15 1 helped Mr. Russell trans- 

 fer eight of his hives to new frames, and, 

 naturally enough, examined the combs be- 

 fore I started to cut them. We found two of 

 the eight hopelessly queenless. With so 

 much to do on his ranch, Mr. Russell had not 

 looked into the hives for over a month, so I 

 had no idea as to when the queens had dis- 

 appeared. 



About the middle of September I looked 

 through about 20 hives for a friend, a man 

 well up in years, who had been tempted to 

 go into a line for which I think he is unfitted. 

 I wanted to see if they were supplied with 

 enough stores for winter, as he lost about a 

 dozen the winter before by starvation. My 

 inspection revealed two absolutely dead, 

 with only a little honey in the frames; two 

 queenless with a handful of bees and hardly 

 any stores; four queenright with a few bees, 

 and a few square inches of comb filled with 

 honey. 



Another bee-keeper reported one hive out 

 of ten having died this summer through be- 

 coming queenless. 



There is no disease of any kind in this lo- 

 cality so far as I can judge, as all combs look 

 in first-class condition. My only explanation 

 is a guess; namely, that last season being late 

 and moderate the bees blamed the queens 

 and tried to supersede; that the new queens 

 were raised in miserably small cells, as most 



